Posts Tagged ‘home fire safety in Brooklyn’

For You: A Brooklyn Home Fire Prevention Checklist

Friday, October 16th, 2015
Home fire

Testing your smoke alarms every month is an important part of the prevention of a home fire in your Brooklyn home.

A home fire can strike without warning, day or night. A home fire is not subject to a particular season of the year. Are you prepared if a home fire happened in your Brooklyn home? If not, you can be!

October is National Fire Prevention Month, so I visited RedCross.org. I found 3 sad home fire statistics:

  •  On average 7 people die every day from a home fire.
  • On average 36 people suffer injuries as a result of home fires every day.
  • Over $7 billion in property damage occurs every year.

RedCross.org also states that if a home fire starts in your Brooklyn home, you have only 2 minutes to escape. Can your family safely escape a fire in your home in just 2 minutes? Find out. Religiously implementing the following two steps will keep your family safe if a home fire happens to you:

  1. Plan and practice a 2-minute fire drill with your family twice every year. Knowing and practicing your home fire escape plan regularly can save your lives.
  2. Smoke alarms should be installed on every level of your home, in every bedroom and outside every bedroom. Your children need to hear what a smoke alarm sounds like. They should know what to do when a smoke alarm goes off.

Test your home’s smoke alarms every month. Sixty percent of home fire deaths happen in homes that have no smoke alarms or smoke alarms that do not work. Smoke alarms should be replaced every 10 years and never disabled.

Carbon monoxide alarms do not replace smoke alarms. Your home should have both carbon monoxide and smoke alarms. Your family should know the difference between the sounds of each.

My blog post 7 Basics of Home Fire Safety in Brooklyn was written when Brooklyn suffered a great tragedy in March, 2015. It reiterates much of what is mentioned here.

Preparation for the possibility of a home fire in your Brooklyn home is key!

No one wants to encounter a home fire emergency ever! But your best safety measure to take is to prepare as if it were inevitable. When you’re prepared for the possibility, you and your family are less likely to become one of the sad home fire statistics listed above.

The following list is lengthy, but every point is important to prepare your family with in case of a home fire.

  • Start preparing by identifying and eliminating fire hazards from your Brooklyn home.
    • Items that can catch fire easily should be kept at least three feet away from anything that gets hot, such as a space heater or burners on a stove.
    • Never, ever smoke in bed.
    • Keep matches and lighters out of reach of your children. Talk about the dangers of fire with them on a regular basis.
    • Don’t go to sleep while a portable heater is on. Turn it off when you leave the room or go to bed.
    • Stay in the kitchen whenever the stove is on and/or food is frying, grilling or broiling. If you must leave the kitchen, turn off the stove, even for a short period of time. Faithfully use a timer to remind you that food is cooking, simmering, baking, roasting or boiling.
  • Download this Home Fire Safety Checklist.
  • Delegate responsibilities to every family member in case a fire starts in your home. Teamwork is vital in an emergency. Yes, different types of fires will require different responsibilities. Discuss all the possibilities, what to do and who will do what.
  • Create an escape plan. Everyone should know two ways to escape from each room in your Brooklyn home.
  • Practice your escape plan at least twice a year and at different times of the day. Practice fire drills after waking everyone up to a smoke alarm.
  • Drill this into everyone’s head: “If a fire occurs in our home, GET OUT, STAY OUT and CALL for help.”
  • Tell your family to never open doors that are warm to the touch. Tell them they should use the second way out of that room. If smoke, heat or flames are blocking their way to escape, they should stay in the room with the door closed. If possible, put a wet towel under the door. Then they should call 911, open a window and wave something bright to grab someone’s attention. A flashlight should be used if the home fire strikes at night.
  • Practice low crawling. A fire’s smoke is deadly and rises during a fire.
  • Practice “Stop. Drop. Roll.” If clothes catch fire, stopping, dropping and rolling will smother the fire and save your life.
  • Decide where you will meet once you get out of your Brooklyn home. Your immediate meeting place should be across the street away from the home fire. Have a point of refuge lined up to stay should a home fire displace you and your family.
  • As soon as you get outside to your meeting place, call 911 for help.
  • Time your fire drills. Remember, you have only two minutes to get out of your burning home! Practice until you get out in two minutes or less.
  • Discuss and decide what to do if any of you get separated while escaping a home fire.

Don’t become a sad Brooklyn home fire statistic. Choose to be prepared just in case. I love Brooklyn and care about the safety of our community. If you have any questions about the safety of a home you own or are looking to purchase, call me, Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn real estate agent with Fillmore Real Estate, at (718) 253-9600 ext. 206 or reach me by email, [email protected].

Sources:

http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster/home-fire

7 Basics of Home Fire Safety in Brooklyn

Wednesday, April 15th, 2015
home fire safety

Practice home fire safety in your home regularly

In March, 2015, the great city of Brooklyn suffered a tragedy in the Midwood community. Fire broke out in the night claiming the lives of seven siblings. Such sadness moves us to seriously face the important issue of home fire safety in our own homes. Does your family know what to do if a fire were to break out in the night in your home?

Take action now. Protect yourself and your family with the following basics of home fire safety:

  1. Before retiring to bed:

  • Unplug as many electrical appliances as possible.
  • If you are a smoker, safely put out cigarettes and extinguish candles. (Always keep matches and lighters out of the reach of children).
  • Check gas appliances.
  • Put a fireplace screen in front of open fires.
  • Clear clutter from staircases.
  • Close interior doors and keep them closed.
  • Keep house and car keys near you or appropriate doors and windows.
  • Keep a mobile phone nearby for emergency calls.
  • If you use an electric blanket, turn it off.
  1. When cooking in the kitchen:

  • NEVER leave a pan in use unattended.
  • Use spark devices to light gas cookers. Matches or lighters are not as safe to use.
  • Pot and saucepan handles should be positioned to point toward the outside edges of the stovetop. Don’t let them hover over pilot lights or other burners.
  • Keep the oven door shut.
  • Use only a thermostat-controlled deep fat fryer for frying.

Kitchen fires account for 50 percent of apartment fires and 25 percent of home fires. One-third of these fires are caused by leaving a pan unattended when in use. Don’t leave cooking food unattended!

  1. When smoking (if you’re a smoker):

  • NEVER smoke in bed.
  • Never leave a lit cigarette, cigar or pipe unattended. As they burn down, they can fall, land on something combustible and start a fire.

Smoking causes more fires and kills more people than any other single cause. Be aware of and take the necessary steps to avoid the fire risks that come with smoking.

  1. If drinking alcohol or taking drugs:

  • If you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you are uncoordinated, uninhibited and more at risk of causing a fire while cooking or smoking.
  • Don’t attempt cooking when impaired.
  • Don’t smoke when impaired. You may fall asleep. Whatever you are smoking will burn down, could fall onto something combustible and could start a fire while you’re asleep.
  1. When using electronics:

  • Keep appliances away from water.
  • Turn off and unplug electrical appliances when not in use. Service them regularly.
  • Never overload outlets. An outlet can overheat and start a fire if too many appliances are drawing power from a single outlet.
  • Never fix damaged cords with duct tape. Throw away the cord or the appliance the damaged cord is attached to.
  • Never run cables or cords under mats or carpets. You’ll never know if the cable or cord is damaged and in need of replacement.
  1. Teach home fire safety tips to your children:

  • Explain the dangers of fire and how it should be dealt with. Depending on the ages of your children, tell them that fire is best dealt with by an adult.
  • Teach your children to STOP, DROP and ROLL if their clothing catches fire. Rolling on the ground will smother the flames.
  • Make a home fire safety escape plan with escape routes and a meeting place across the street from your home. Share it with your children and practice it with them regularly.
  1. General home fire safety tips:

  • Make sure smoke detectors are working properly each month. Change smoke detector batteries every six months. (Before properly disposing 9-volt batteries, cover the positive and negative connections at the top of each battery with duct tape).
  • Place at least one smoke detector on every level of your home.
  • Install escape ladders in second- and third-story bedroom windows.
  • Fire extinguishers should be placed in the kitchen and near places in the home where there are open flames.

A home has many potential hazards, but preventing fires in your home should take top priority. Take time to make your home as safe as it can possibly be. Make your family feel safe and secure at home.

For more information on home fire safety, visit  http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/safety-tip-sheets.

As a Brooklyn real estate agent with Fillmore Real Estate, I truly care about my clients’ safety in their homes here in Brooklyn. Contact me, Charles D’Alessandro, at (718) 253-9600 ext 206 or email [email protected] when looking to buy or sell your next home.

Resources:

http://www.syfire.gov.uk/homesafetybasics.asp

http://www.syfire.gov.uk/homefiresafety.asp

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/03/23/local-leaders-urge-brooklyn-families-to-prioritize-fire-safety-in-wake-of-deadly-blaze/